The last two weeks of school: a time to pass around yearbooks and pens between students and teachers, discussions over summer plans with friends, and efforts to make the last few days feel nostalgic despite the unchanged routine. The relaxed, yet excited vibe of the last two weeks of school can be used waiting for summer, or used to cherish even the smallest moments.
Around this time of the school year, students are fixated on summer plans rather than the rest of the actual school year. With this mindset, the school year ends up concluding on a less memorable note, rather than one that will actually make an impact on students. Prioritizing mindfulness is key to making a school year’s ending bittersweet and unforgettable.
“During the last week or two of school, I’m in ‘summer mode’. Summer vacation occupies my mind and leaves less room for school. A couple weeks earlier, though, I am often more motivated to finish well.” Antonia Edu said, an eighth-grade student.
As the end of the year lingers, opportunities arise both academically and socially. Opportunities can arise through summer hangouts or get-togethers to come together to roast marshmallows at the beach or take a group trip to the mall, plans that actually make it out of the group chat.
Other than a more towering workload and a surge in opportunities that are both academic and fun, the last two weeks of school are mostly ordinary. To romanticize the little moments: simple things such as morning announcements broadcasting heartfelt messages, the crowded chaos of the afternoon lunch lines, the bittersweet feeling of having to see that one dreaded class, not so dreaded anymore as the year concludes. All of these moments, good and bad, will soon live as merely a memory in every student’s brain.
For freshman Salma Elmallah, nostalgia has been very prominent this school year. “Time flies by so quickly, and next thing I know, I’ll be in my senior year rethinking everything that happened in these years in Oxford. I still remember when it was the beginning of the school year, and I was counting the weeks until school would end with my friends.” Elmallah said.
As the final signatures and wholehearted messages are being written onto the final panels of yearbooks, students laugh at summer plans and watch the bell until it finally rings for the last time. In the end, the school year is not defined by semester grades, school dances, or sports games, but by how you choose for it to conclude.
